Many dispensers of material such as fluid dispensers and paper roll dispensers have removable cartridges which are inserted and removed for replacement after the material to be dispensed carried by the cartridge has been exhausted. Many such dispensers suffer the disadvantage that coupling mechanisms for coupling of the removable cartridges to the dispensers are complex and do no provide any keying or lock out arrangement for limiting use of replacement cartridges to limited configurations.
Many of today's products sold in liquid form, such as liquid hand soap, are contained in disposable containers or reservoirs which incorporate a pump assembly. Typically, the pump assembly includes a reciprocally movable element which when moved dispenses a quantity of liquid soap from the reservoir. The reservoirs are generally fitted within a permanent housing which includes a movable actuator assembly which engages and reciprocally moves the movable element to dispense the fluid. This has been found to be both a convenient and economical means of fluid supply and dispensation. Since the fluid reservoirs are replaced once the fluid supply is exhausted, it is desirable to manufacture the dispenser and reservoir so as to make replacement of the fluid reservoir as easy and quick as possible.
Known fluid dispensers suffer the disadvantage in ensuring the movable element is placed and maintained in a correct dispensing position relative the actuator assembly to properly dispense fluids. To achieve the proper dispensing configuration, the pump assembly must therefore be precisely aligned in the housing to ensure it is properly secured in or coupled to the actuator assembly. In some fluid dispensers, a disadvantage arises that after initial coupling of the movable element with the actuator assembly, the moveable element can with use come to be displaced out of proper alignment, for example, radially relative an axis about which the movable element is reciprocally movable.
Known fluid dispensers suffer the disadvantage that the coupling mechanism for coupling of the movable element and the actuator assembly permits movable elements having a wide variety of physical shapes and sizes to be coupled to the actuator assembly, and thus do not provide a keying or lock out arrangement for limiting replacement reservoirs which can be coupled to the housing to those with movable elements of limited particular shapes and sizes.
Paper dispensers are known in which end plugs for a roll of material are adapted for removable retention in a dispenser such as a paper dispenser disclosed in U.S. Patent 2009/0039099 to Friesen, published Feb. 12, 2009. End plugs for rolls of material which permit slidable insertion of a roll of paper for coupling a roll of paper to a dispenser are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent 2008/0230418. The applicant has appreciated that end plugs of the type disclosed by Lind et al suffer the disadvantage that relatively substantial structure including resilient mechanisms is provided as a permanent portion of the housing which are liable to lose their resiliency over time and hence render the dispenser unusable.